What we know about the Samsung Note 8: design, specs & release rumours

Samsung has announced an UNPACKED event on 23rd August 2017 – Image: Samsung

Samsung’s Note 8 is shaping up to be one one of the most anticipated phones this year, not only because it’s the next flagship device from the South Korean manufacturer but because it has a lot to prove after last year’s disastrous Note 7 issues which resulted in a world wide recall. The Note 8 has a lot to prove to restore consumer faith in the ‘Note’ line of phablets and Samsung seem confident they can do that. In an interview with CNET, Samsung’s mobile chief D.J. Koh is quoted saying “I will bring back a better, safer and very innovative Note 8”. Samsung have scheduled an ‘Unpacked’ event taking place on 23rd August 2017 to unveil their new phablet and can watch the event live from Samsung’s website.

What does the Samsung Note 8 Look Like?

A simple web search will return numerous designs and rendered images of what everyone thinks the Note 8 will look like but the most reliable design leak we have is from Evan Blass, a well regarded mobile reporter who tweeted a high-quality image of the Note 8 in both Black and Gold variants.

The Note 8 pictured above takes design inspiration from the Samsung Galaxy S8 with its edge to edge display and only a hint of bezel on the left and right edge. Up top, we can see a slightly larger bezel leaving enough room for the standard sensors and front facing camera. long the bottom there is a similarly sized bezel but no sign of Samsung’s standard back and menu buttons which were present on last year’s Note 7.

The back of the phablet in Evan’s leaked image shows off the Note 8’s dual camera set up which comes as a first for Samsung and a welcome arrival considering it’s something both Apple and Huawei have on their flagship devices, the iPhone 7 and the P10 Plus.

Samsung has aligned the Fingerprint Sensor with the camera lens and flash on the back of the device which matches the design on the current S8 models, it seems Samsung is not ready to implement on screen fingerprint recognition which has been speculated for a while now.

The S-Pen is featured in the above leak and it’s a standard feature in Samsung’s Note range, while we do not have any further information on the S-Pen at this time we do expect it to insert into the Note device when not in use and sport the same button and features from the Note 7’s S-Pen.

What do we know about the specs?

According to Geekbench the Samsung Note 8 or ‘SM-N950U’ will run on Qualcomm’s SnapDragon 835 which can also be found in the OnePlus 5 and Samsung’s S8. The SnapDragon 835 is Qualcomm’s most powerful and latest processor to date.

Samsung’s Note 8 will come with the latest version of Android OS which is 7.1.1 Nougat and according to the benchmark, 6GB RAM is to be expected with a minimum of 64GB space, however, rumours point towards options of 128GB and 256GB as well.

Standard features from the S8 are to be carried across to the Note 8 as well, as usual with Samsung we expect Wireless charging and NFC as well as IP68 Water and dust resistance. Iris scanner technology is also set to make a return and Samsung’s virtual assistant Bixby will certainly be present in their latest device.

What will the Note 8 Cost?

Samsung’s flagship devices are never cheap, last year the Note 7 released with a £749 price tag while the S8+ released costing consumers £779. We expect the Note 8 to release with a price tag of around £900 and those curved edge screens don’t come cheap so this may well be a phone which justifies taking out insurance.

Price aside, the Note 8 is expected to sell like mad, the Note 7 sold over 1 million units in the US alone last year and as we already mentioned Samsung has a lot to prove this year and I’m certain the Note 8 will restore the tarnished name after last year, that is as long as there are no batteries exploding this time round.